Zutara Oneshots
by Yellta
Summary: Zutara Week One-shots! Day Three Topic: Transcend. What if Katara had time to heal Zuko's scar? Does she have the ability to change his life forever?
1. Momentous

**Care, Kindness, Attention**

_Zutara Week-Day Two! I may do day one at some point, though I don't know what other days I'll end up doing._

_Disclaimer: Own nothing, don't sue me!_

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**Zuko's POV**

I was sick of destruction and I was sick of war. My entire life had been about it, even after I joined with the Avatar, I still had to fight and destroy. I had seen villages burned, families terrorized and entire cities fall. Some of those things, I did myself. My strength had done nothing but hurt and destroy because I had to serve my nation.

But now, I wanted serve my nation by creating something.

The problem was, creating what? There had been one person in his life who I could say really created something and that was my mother. She grew the most beautiful fire lilies. She tried to teach me how to grow them but they wouldn't grow from me. I can still remember what she told me to do.

_Zuko, they'll only grow if you give them enough care, kindness and attention._

Apparently I wasn't doing one of the parts right, because they still withered and died every time I planted them. How could I create something good for his nation, when I can't even get a flower to grow? Before I could realize what I was doing, I had burned one of the fire nations flags out of frustration and knocked a stack of scrolls onto the floors.

I must have been so mad, I didn't hear the door open. "Zuko, is everything alright?"

The voice made me jump and I turned around to see, Katara standing behind me. "Yeah, just leave me alone."

However, Katara didn't move, I shouldn't have known she wouldn't go away. "You look a lot like you did when you first tried to join us."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're frustrated." She was always really good at reading people's feelings, something else I wasn't good at. "What are you frustrated about?"

There was no use not telling her, because Katara wasn't going to leave until I told her. "I'm destructive."

"...You didn't know this?"

"Of course I knew! I'm trying to stop destroying things and I'm trying to make something but I can't figure out how."

Katara sat quietly for a moment. "Come on, let's go for a walk."

* * *

She brought me down to the Harbor City and the two of us just wandered around. Ever since the war ended, an influx of merchants of other nations started to come to the port again, bringing their exotic goods. Katara seemed to love all the diversity, and I couldn't help but be fascinated by it either, even though I had traveled the world.

"Do you know why I brought you here?" She asked me.

"Because you wanted to go shopping?"

She rolled her big blue eyes. "No, because there's people who have created things from every part of the world."

"I don't think I-" I didn't get to finish my sentence because she had pulled me over a small stall which looked like it was from the Northern Water Tribe. Sitting behind the stall was a man craving necklace charms out of wood.

He looked up at the two of us and must of caught notice of my scar. "Firelord Zuko, and Lady Katara, it's wonderful to have you at my store! Would you like to see anything?"

Katara's eyes scanned the necklace charms. She pointed at one. "Can I see that one?"

"Of course." The man got it down for her and handed it to her. I looked at the small carving in her hand. I had only seen it once, but I realized immediately that it was a carving of the fish in the Spirit Oasis.

"Wow, it's really intricate." She observed.

"Thank you. I always found the Spirit Oasis to be the most inspiring and beautiful place on earth."

"It must have taken great care and effort to make this. What do you think of it, Zuko?"

"It's very beautiful." I didn't feel right just admiring the work of the wood-craver so I ended up buying the necklace from him. After I thanked him, Katara directed me to another shop. At this shop, there was a Fire Nation man making fire-saltwater taffy. I remember buying bags of it as a little kid, though my uncle told me if I ate to much of it my teeth would rot out of my head. I suppose he was right, I ended up with a cavity.

As we were walking up to the candy stall, I noticed a little boy lurking around the store. He looked like a poor street child, skinny and dirty. The shop owned must have seen him as well. "What are you doing hanging around here, boy?"

"I'm sorry, sir." The kid stuttered.

"Are you hungry?" The shopkeeper asked.

"I...um..."

The shop own took out a bag, filled it with candy and handed it to the little boy. "The only thing candy is good for is being eaten and cheering someone up. Why else would I make it?"

"Thank you, mister!" The kid ran off with the candy, extremely happy with his prize.

I looked over at Katara, who seemed to be touched by this. "What an act of kindness, sharing with that little boy."

We walked up to the shop and again, the owner realized who I was. After seeing how happy the shop-keeper's actions had made Katara, I felt like I had to do something. I paid for the candy the stop-keeper had given the kid and then bought some more candy.

Katara and I walked down the street of vendors until another one caught her eye. This stall belonged to an Earth Kingdom woman and displayed dozens of landscape paintings.

"Can I interest you in a painting?" She asked the two of us.

Katara looked over all the paintings and then found a small one which she picked up. "What's this one of?"

"That's of the forests in the north western Earth Kingdom."

I looked at the picture. For being so small, there was a lot going on. There were the pine trees and the animals that lived in them, including what looked like a blue-jay. One the ground there were the little flowers that carpeted the floor and in the middle of the picture was a sleeping fire ferret.

Katara looked up from the picture. "How long did it take you to paint this?"

"I camped out in the woods and painted non-stop for three days."

"It was worth it, your attention to detail is amazing."

"Thank you, I take pride in that."

Just like the last two stalls, I ended up buying what we looked at. Hopefully I wouldn't burn it the next time I got frustrated.

* * *

It was staring to get late and Katara and I were walking back, when she suddenly stopped and pulled me over to another stall. This one was a flower stall. Katara picked up a bunch of flowers and smelled them.

"Look, Zuko, fire lilies. Aren't they beautiful?"

I looked at the fire lilies, and I thought of everything my mother.

_Zuko, they'll only grow if you give them enough care, kindness and attention._

I looked down at the things in my hands that someone had created.

There was the necklace.

_It must have taken great care and effort to make this._

And there was the candy.

_What an act of kindness, sharing with that little boy._

Finally, there was the painting.

_It was worth it, you're attention to detail is amazing._

Then it all came together. My mother's words were not just about flowers. All around the world, people were using them to create. With the war over, they had come together and sold what they had made. If there were so many beautiful things just coming out of that, what could the nations create if we all worked together, side by side.

I knew what I wanted to create. A place like the harbor, but bigger. Somewhere all types of people could live and work together. They would work together and create more beautiful things. I would make a city unlike any other, the most beautiful city in the world.

I looked back at the fire lilies. "They are beautiful. Thank you, Katara."

The most beautiful city in the world, to thank the most beautiful woman in the world.

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_A/N- And now we know where Republic City came from. _

_Thanks for reading! Reviews are loved almost as much as I love Zutara!_

_Happy Zutara Week!_


	2. Transcend

**If She Could Heal Him**

_Zutara week Day Three! I've rewritten this scene before, but not like this. This time Katara will have time to heal Zuko, but can she do it?_

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Katara had never been in a more beautiful prison than the Crystal Catacombs under Ba Sing Se. She couldn't admire the beauty, though, because Aang, Sokka and Toph were still facing the coup d'etat alone. If anything happened to them and she wasn't there to help, Katara wouldn't be able to forgive herself. No matter what she did, though, there was no way out of this mystic prison.

Then Zuko came and suddenly, the prison become ugly to Katara. She hated him for everything he had done to her and her friends. Zuko had the same horrible traits that every firebender she had come across had. He was destructive, cruel, devious, and _heartless_. But while trapped in prison with him, she saw something different. She didn't see Zuko the enemy, instead she saw Zuko the man. He wasn't anything like the other firebenders she had met, he was trying to find his place in the world.

"I'm sorry, I yelled at you before." She apologized.

"It doesn't matter."

"It's just for so long now, whenever I would imagine the the face of the enemy, it was your face."

He held a hand to the red mark on the side of his face, memories of the day he got it came rushing back. "My face, I see."

"No, no. That's not what I meant."

"It's okay. I used to think this scar marked me, the mark of the banished prince cursed to chase the avatar forever. But lately, I realized I'm free to determine my own destiny, even if I'll never be free from my mark.

Then Katara thought of something. If she could heal his scar, maybe she could help heal the injuries done to him in the past. MAybe then he would really be a changed man. "Maybe you could be free of it."

"What?"

"I have healing abilities."

"It's a scar, it can't be healed."

Katara new he was right, she couldn't heal scars. Suddenly, she remembered the vial of water her Waterbending Master had given her. "This water is from the spirit oasis at the North Pole. It has special properties so I've been saving it for something really important. I don't know if it will work, but..."

Zuko stared at her for a moment and then closed his eyes. Katara laid a hand on the scar. She had never done something like this before and it would take every bit of her power to do this. But could she even do it?

_I have to do this for him and for the world. _She took the top off the vial of water and bent it carefully out into her hands. The abnormal spiritual energy in the water rushed back and forth like the tide. Katara didn't hesitate any longer and bent the water over his scar. She held her hands to his face, pouring all her energy into her bending. If she wanted this to work, she would have to heal until exhaustion. The spiritual water sunk deeper and deeper into his skin, changing it. Katara focused only on her bending and on helping Zuko as her arms started to feel weak. The water-bender kept going as the exhaustion from such a costly healing began to take over her body. With the last bit of her strength, Katara bent the rest of the water into his scar. Then she closed her eyes and collapsed.

"Katara!" Zuko leaned forward and caught her before she hit the ground. Slowly he put her down so she was lying on her back and he knelt over her. "Katara, are you alright?"

Slowly Katara opened her eyes and saw his face. "Zuko!" She gasped and held her hand up to the left side of his face.

"What?"

"It's gone."

Zuko held his hand up to his face, next to her she had her own hand. The skin there was no longer raised and bumpy, it was smooth. "You really did it, you freed me from my mark." Zuko picked Katara up and spun her around out of happiness. She had given all her strength to give him another chance after all he had done was hurt her. He had never seen a kinder spirit. "I am now free to make my own destiny, thank you Katara. How can I ever repay you?" He asked as he put her down.

"Make your own choices, Zuko. I believe you are a good person inside and now nothing is stopping you from being that person."

Zuko was so happy, he leaned forward and embraced Katara as strongly as he could. "I promise I will never let you down, Katara." He looked down into her sapphire eyes and she looked into his changed face. He was a new man and then Katara realized she desperately wanted to get to know this changed man. The changed man wanted to give the water-bender who had given him his life back, everything. Neither of them realized it as they slowly began to lean closer to each other, their lips drawing closer every second.

Suddenly, the walls tumbled in on the one side of the prison. Out of surpirse, Zuko and Katara broke apart and turned. Through the wall came Iroh and Aang.

"Katara!" Aang cried as he ran up to her and hugged her.

Iroh looked at his nephew and his eyes widened. "Zuko?" He asked out of disbelief. "Your scar-"

"I know, Katara healed it." The younger firebender excitedly explained.

Iroh walked up to his nephew and touched his repaired skin. "But how?"

"She used spirit water from the North Pole and all of her strength so I could have a chance to find my own destiny. She is the best healer in the world, Uncle."

"I'll say she is."

"And I know what my destiny is now." Zuko stated. He turned to the avatar. "Avatar Aang. I want to help you defeat my father. I can help teach you fire bending, but it still couldn't repay what your friend has done for me."

Aang wasn't so sure about Zuko, after-all he had chased them around the world and was their enemy. Could he really trust that just because Katara healed him that he had really changed? Then Aang looked over to Katara. She did really seem to believe him and she had given everything she had to heal him. "If you say you've changed, then I believe you."

"I won't let you down, Avatar. You will have the two best firebending teacher is the world." Zuko looked over to his uncle.

"You're coming too?" Aang asked Iroh.

"Of course. I can't just let a bunch of teenagers travel around the world unsupervised."

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_A/N- So Katara overcame her boundries and healed Zuko and Zuko overcame his past with the help of Katara. Then they almost kissed, but Aang got in the way...sigh. Go date Toph, Aang, and leave Zutara alone! _

_Thanks for reading, I still love reviews! Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far._


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